This is so true. Even though I told many other people that it is feasible to invest from overseas. All you need is a good power team, excellent number-cracking skills, a good marketing campaign to source property, etc, which all seem to be skills that you can master with practice. But there’s one thing that not everyone can, or even wants to face: fear.
Having been in this industry for almost five years, I’ve experienced different challenges at different stages. There were, for certain, all sorts of problems as I progressed, but I realised a change of mindset and an increase in tolerance for stress, the deeper I dove into this industry. Looking back on 2019, when I first started out, I was always holding my head over water, trying to keep my head out of water. My goal was not to drown. I was facing higher borrowing rates (looking back before the base rate had risen, I’d rather pay the rates back then…), fewer choices for lenders and less flexibility for other exits, not to mention the financial challenge because of a lack of investor funds. My fear of the possibility of failing at every step was huge.
In the second year, I tried to swim by myself. I purchased properties using creative finance, which has allowed me to do more than one project at a time, and I started to speak with friends about hands-off investment. I started to discover more advanced strategies in the property world, and I came to a point where I realised that I was not satisfied with where I was. I had to choose between either staying where I was and doing similar sizes of deals, or I would need to invest in myself and dive deeper into this industry, which would allow me to find greater treasure. Not only was it a choice on the financial aspect, but it was also a choice on the personal development level. I chose the latter. That choice exposed me to —
Covid. Nobody could have imagined that a virus could have brought us all on the same boat. There were even more uncertainties in the housing market. What got me was that the refurbs took longer because it was not possible for builders to arrange for the building materials in a timely manner. Refinancing the properties took a longer time, which also means that the interest paid out to angels became higher. My biggest challenge was time and patience. Fear had stretched me further out of my comfort zone.
Finding off-market deals has become a new skill I dig into. I started to feel more confident as an independent property investor (not only purchasing deals from surging agents) beginning from this year onwards. As I’ve become more experienced, I’ve also encountered another problem that I could not control, which was people. During the refinance of one of the properties, there was negligence and mistakes caused by different parties. Another lesson I learned!
But there was this epiphany. I used to wonder what other people did to make it to the top. What was their secret to success? Well, the answer is simple and has always been there. But people tend to ignore it and look elsewhere instead. It’s to never give up, keep on moving forward no matter what, keep learning and honing new skills, be proactive instead of reactive, and be persistent. The biggest rule of all is to start. And then to commit wholly.
Simple principles, but it is hard to do it with persistence and consistency. It is not easy doing it from overseas, but that doesn’t mean that it’s going to get any easier when you’re living in the UK. For most people, the fear comes from the fear itself. What you focus on expands. Focus on the fear, the fear grows. Focus on your goal and on improving yourself, you’ll get better every single day.